Whenever you feel lethargic and depressed by your situation in life reflect on how much worse things could be. This solution to depression sounds obvious and simplistic but it works. Gratitude for what we have in life lifts the spirit especially when we realize how much more we have to be grateful for than many others. In the Western, "High Plains Drifter", Clint Eastwood, the hero, corners the men who had bullwhipped him years before when he was a young marshal trying to do his duty. He shoots one of them in the right ear. The man cries out in plaintiff and astonished agony:
"He shot my ear off! He shot my ear off!" His partner has little sympathy. "Well he could of shot your whole damn head off!" Whatever situation we are in, there is always a worse situation possible. If you are being attacked by a rottweiler, you could have been facing a mountain lion instead. If you are being mugged by two men, it could have been three! If you lost ten thousand pounds, it could have been thirty thousand etc. I once lost about $48,000 when I invested with an investment group which turned out to be the front for a group of ruthless con artists. I thought that was a big loss until I heard about a man who had lost $48,000,000. Some of these are fanciful examples but you get the picture. It is always worth being grateful that things are not worse. If you are overweight, at least you can remedy this condition. If you have a terminal disease, you cannot. If there are books you have not read, at least you can still read. A few daily moments of meditation on these lines can motivate us to be grateful for what we have and inspire us to get on with making the best possible use of all the advantages we still have. |
